Thursday 8th of May:

I awaken around 6:45 am, double check my pink leopard print backpack to ensure that I have everything I wanted to bring. Check, I got it all!Then I made sure I had all our merchandise in the suitcase I plan to check during our flight to the JFK airport in NYC. Within 15 to 30 minutes James (Seputus) arrives at my house, then moments later Stich arrives.

We had planned to meet @ 7:00 am so that we'd be ready when our Cab arrived @ 7:15, we'd be ready. This time, unlike last, the taxi driver was ON TIME, however Jesse James, Adriana (Jesse James's girlfriend) and Vyle were still on their way. So we had to pay $5 extra to wait for them, which was no big deal at all. They arrived moments later and we got to the airport @ 8:00 am, giving us enough time to wait in line, and be checked in two hours before our flight left SLC.

It went very smooth, we all got checked in, found coffee (not starbucks!) and after not too long we found a bar open and enjoyed a beer. After a beer and some coffee, it was close to the boarding process. Stich and I sat by each other, James (Seputus) and Vyle sat by each other and Adriana and Jesse sat by each other, a bit split up but in groups at least. We had fun playing in flight trivia on the screen on the back of the Delta seats, Stich scored the highest on the flight. I scored 2nd to him, followed by Adriana and Jesse, we owned that game on the plane!

After what seemed like not much time we arrived in NYC 4 & 1/2 hours later.
We then had one goal, to find the Samuel Adams bar, hoping that the same lady who last time, with a strong New York accent served us before we flew to Germany last November for our 2007 European Tour. We had to split the bill five ways and she said, "oh god, let me get my manager." It was funny ;-) We found it and long behold she was working, and she remembered us! We were all very happy to see her again, we took a picture with her, too!

After that, it was about time to go to our gate and wait to depart to TXL-Berlin. Once again we all sat in the same groups as before, actually, it was like this the whole trip so I'll spare mentioning that every time ;-) We wanted to stay awake the whole time so when we eventually went to bed the next day we would be waking up in German time.

The flight attendent came by after not too long, and brought us a drink, which Stich and I chose Jack Daniels Whiskey & Coke, and boy it was tasty. After the first shot/mini bottle we felt that more would be better, so I casually walked up to a nice lady in a red trench coat, servicing the people up in first class and asked 1) do you take debit/credit cards? (Since Stich only had a card) and 2) can we get more Jack?

She said yes to both questions, after that I used the facilities, but while I was gone this nice lady attempted to bring by our Jack Daniels and Cokes. So after a few moments a different flight attendant lady came by and gave the two of our our whiskey's, for free! This free whiskey/drink phenomenon is not new to us, as we've had great luck w/ free drinks on airplanes just about every time, but we have never taken them for granted. So yeah, 4 drinks later for the each of us we were a bit hyped up and met up with Vyle and James at the back of the plane to say hi. Then we went back to our seats and listened to "Silence for the Peacefully" by Hardcore Superstar, a song we played quite a bit over this trip.

Eventually the buzz wore off, and we watched some lame movie, Mad Money, and kinda got a nap before they brought by our Vegan/Vegetarian breakfast, not bad, I had no complaints, it was free ya know? Oh yeah, we had a few nice conversations with some old or elderly couples who were off to visit Berlin. They were very nice and I definitely had to mention them in this.

Friday May 9th:

The flight was right around 9 hours, and when we arrived we were excited to meet our driver, get a beer and enjoy the two hour drive to Leipzig. After obtaining all of checked bags, guitars and effects we found Carolina, our driver. She was awesome as hell and stopped soon for the much needed beer. Most of us got the Hassestrodder (I forget the exact spelling) Pilsner, I believe Jesse chose the Diesel version where they mix Beer with Cola. Ok, moving on from the beers..

We arrived in Leipzig after listening to some new music by Redemption (who Jesse James is guitarist for and James is drummer for) and then Disruptive Creatures (a electro dance recording project I am the singer for) we arrived.

First things first, pick up our band wristbands, check. Then to the hotel, after a bit of a ride we arrived, checked in and went to our rooms. Stich and I wanted to get out as soon as possible so we wouldn't fall asleep as we'd been up for about a day by then. Long behold a knock erupts and James is there. We all, after some discussion decide to get snacks and beer.

Shitty for me, as when we stopped by an ATM (that are a pain in the ass to find in Germany), it will not give me any money, this upsets a mofo, but Stich hooks up a nig with bread and tomato paste and a beer to follow. Oh yeah, earlier we decided we'd all leave @ 4pm, it was 2pm at the time. Waiting around for this time made us sleepy and Stich and I fell asleep on the one bed in our hotel room. However, soon as we hit the sack none other than Vyle comes to our door, ready to go party with us. Turns out Jesse, Adriana (you know, his girlfriend), and James are all asleep. So, Stich, Vyle and I walk to the tram, meet up with other WGT festival goers and make our way to the main station, there I luckily find an ATM which will give me the money from my checking account, I am now a happy mofo, for the record.

So yeah, the tram and the mainstation are compeltely flooded with every kind of goth you can imagine, which is a pretty sight to see if you haven't seen it before. Oh yeah, right before we left our hotel our good friends Dave & Jenn Bats texted me, wondering where we were, so before we left I told em we were on our way. Ok, so we arrive at the Agra Halle, the main meeting/headlining band venue area. As I or should I say we walk in, I see fiends from all over the world crammed into this open space. Moments later we find Dave and Jenn Bats first thing and as we walk together, my fiend Lyle or Djpoisondwarf and his Aussie crue yell out my name and we meet eachother for the first time, and in the process I lose my group of TB boys and Bats. However, after some wandering we found em, then I bullshitted a bunch, smiled, drank, had fun. After not too long I ran into one of my best freinds SEAN (Sean was our Driver/Tour Manager for our 3 week 2007 European Tour)!! We hugged, we drank, we partied! He introduced me to his friend Roxy, who is also into Sleaze/Glam, good times. This is when my memory begins to become a bit fuzzy due to the beers & being awake for over 24 hours. Around this time I ran into one of my best friends in the whole world, Steffie and her boyfriend Micha. She couldn't drink much so I drank on her behalf hahaha!! The only band I intended to check out that night was Sigue Sigue Sputnik. I didn't really watch them though, the place was crowded as hell and I felt like talking, bonding and drinking instead of standing and watching.. so yeah, I just walked through, checked it out and met back up with more fiends. I had a really good time talking with Dave & Jenn Bats, god I love those two, but why didn't Shane (thee pain, singer of Element/STG/The Operative) come to WGT? That would have made it even better, our Release The Bats fiends! I also had fun chatting with my new Australian fiends, who say they may be able to hook up a TB tour for! Woot! Lyle, Rachel & Clint rock, the whole crew does but I've forgotten the other names, but I feel lucky to remember what I do haha!

After a while I met up with Sean again and we went to the Kaffe where he was scheduled to DJ. Upon going to that part of the Agra Halle I met my friends Lucas Lanthier, Frank the Baptist and their lovely girlfriends. Had some beers and nice conversations with those chaps and eventually remembered that I brought a Tragic Black/Disruptive Creatures promo CD, so I gave it to Sean, who played the 1st D.C. song I've recorded so far "Digital Rivalry", was cool to kinda hear it from the 2nd floor. Anyway, I eventually took off , went back out side, got more bier and after a while the guys and I ended up going to the When We Were Young Party, and it was so bad ass!! Sean Dj'd there too, and he did great! He even played "Lips Like Morphine" by Kill Hannah, which got all of us, and then everyone else dancing and all hyped up. We decided to leave kind of early, around 4 am, so we'd have time to sleep and get rest before the Tragic Black performance and long night of partying we had in store for us the next day.

Saturday May 10th:

After some tram riding and walking Friday night we were back at our hotel, slept like a rock and woke up around 1 or 2 pm Saturday. Got ready quick, since our driver was going to be there at that time, so we could drop off our instruments (2 guitars & 1 bass) at the venue. I was SO hungry, feeling a bit light headed and faint, how I get when I don't eat, ya know how it goes. Luckily the food the venue provided did the trick and got me feeling good again. Then the beer came and I felt 100%.

After helping Vyle with his hair and making sure my make up was done I met up with Ralf of Strobelight Records at the back of the venue (Werk II) and folded the 50 TB shirts we brought. After lots of folding and cutting out patches, we were set. I decided to stay at the venue, enjoy myself, since it was windy as fuck (didn't want to ruin my hair) and hot (didn't want to sweat off my make up). It seems all of us but Jesse James decided to do this. It was cool though because after we were finished getting ready, it was about time for the 1st band "Love's Labour's Lost" to go on.

Before they went on we hung out the people from New Days Delay, which was nice, they were all very friendly. I was excited to see them, and they felt the same about us, so that was rad. After a bit James and I went out and checked out "Love's Labour's Lost", pretty good, and after a while we went outside to discover a fuck load of people had arrived, some of whom I knew and was happy to say hello to and have a beer or bier with. Such good times, got to see Scary Lady Sarah and her husband, god what is his name, I always forget, anyway he is the signer from "Passion Play", love the guy, hate my bad name memory, argh, anyway. Met my friend Tyves who runs Crawling Tunes magazine, and gave me the current issue which TB was interviewed in, and signed some TB cd's for him, god I love that guy. Time ticked and then "Cauda Pavonis" went on, I walked closer to see them play, watched a bit then I ended up outside again, met some really funny people. Some guy who called me Bealle, I think thats how you spell it, anyway, he was referring to the signer of the band "Tokio Hotel", suck band, rad hair (singer). Anyway, we became friends right off the bat and hung out with his buddies for a bit before continuing to wander and find more crazy people to talk to. After 40 minutes or so New Days Delay was about to go on so a few of the TB boys went to see them, and they did a great show! Though, I don't understand German, I got into it. I'm sure it's like that for Germans watching us, come tio think of it. Anyway, after that Götterdämmerung was about to go on. Side note, Götterdämmerung to me sounds like a swear word for "God dammit", don't get me wrong, the band is bad ass, but if you yell out GOTTERDAMERUNG!!! It's has that kind of swear word power, moving on. Before they played I discivered the outside vendors sold dark beer or Schwarses and it was pretty tasty! So between watching Götterdämmerung and sipping dark beer I realized we were up next and that made this mofo way excited.

I went and met everyone backstage, took a lil photo and got ready to rock. I did a small meditation right before our intro started, hoping to fill myself and those around me with a flip the fuck out - radiate positive energy kind of vibe.

Our intro, which we've only used at that WGT 08 gig so far shook the fucking walls! James made it while we were stuck in Norway on the 07 tour, trying to get to Italy, anyway the intro started, everyone was on stage, the intro was playing and I was building up suspension by waiting for the right moment to walk, or rather run on stage. And BAM that time had come, I run on stage grab the mic, throw the mic stand, stare into the crowd right as Seashell Radio blasts off, and it literally was a blast off.

Like a bomb of lunatics rocking with all our might. None of us could stand still, or keep our feet on the ground, we were running, jumping, totally filled with energy!!

I found some videos of the show on youtube (but some 2006 w/ crazy sound came up in the search too): http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=tragic+black+wgt&search_type=&aq=f

The set went better than any gig Tragic Black has ever done yet. More energy, SO tight and so pretty. I brought a shirt, patches, promo cd and jumped off stage, climbed up on the fence and gave out free stuff. I love when bands give away free shit during gigs, not just picks or drums sticks, so yeah I hooked the crowd up and they seemed to be really excited about the free stuff!

We had planned to have Sean (who, if I didn't mention it earlier was our driver on the 2007 tour) come on stage and sing backing vocals on FAITH IN DECAY!!

He did so god damn good, being a dj, close friend and tour manager, he knew the lyrics, and not only that, he had a total TB stage presence and totally jumped around and kept things exciting, great job Sean!!

Through out the set I managed to destroy mic cables by accident, but luckily they had a full crew there to replace whatever needed to be replaced, so between 3 mic's I rocked em!!! Everything went great, oh yeah at one point I damn near collapsed, not out of exhaustion, but after getting back on stage for the 2nd time, my whole body went numb, my vision went blurry, death could of been a heart beat away, but it wasn't because suddenly I was vivid again and in a split second it was back to rocking the fuck out! The crowd loved us, we even got a mosh pit wait, not mosh pit but an old school a "slam dance" going on up front, kind of in the middle. Some of our crazy Belgium fiends freaked out, which was great to see. I looked into so many faces who smiled back, lifted their fists in the air and showed us love, I or we couldn't have been happier with our performance and the audiences attention. All around it was nothing short of amazing for all of us, here is the set we played:

Ignition Intro
Seashell Radio
Sink In
Mad Hatter
Bodies on the Ave
Reptile
Red Lights Dance
June's Dying
Blood N' Bones
The Cold Caress
Circuit III
Faith IN Decay
Aparicion

After we finished our set we went off stage, I cleaned the blood off my hand, I have no idea how it got cut, but after attending to that I re-applied my make that had gotten sweated off, so much for trying to keep it pretty hahaha!
It didn't take much time at all to fix, though. All the boys were happy, and after some warm words from Frank the Baptist, they went off to begin their show. I needed a beer, one of those yummy dark beers so I went back outside for one and received a lot of good words from the crowd :-) What a night!
After cooling down, relaxing, and hanging out, "The Dirty Weather Project" was taking the stage. They put on a fun show, being a more mellow-acoustic guitar, ghastly story telling show, everyone enjoyed their beautiful music.
While they were on, the whole (TB) got together, met at the Strobelight Records booth to sell merch, sign autographs, take pixx and have fun with everyone back there while we all enjoyed The Dirty Weather Project.
I asked Vyle to try and sell some merch since he has such a good way with people. Adriana helped out too and also did a fantastic job at the booth might I add, I have to say big thanks to both of them!! We sold A LOT of shit!! I don't want to brag, but we did great, and we needed to since we owed people in Italy money for missing those gigs on the 2007 tour, so we were so happy to be able to pay them back!!!

Next up was "The Superheroines" featuring none other than Eva O. They did a rockin' show, I appreciated it. God, I had such a good time, I need to go to WGT again! Whether TB plays or not, I must go! Anyway, so while The Superheroines were playing James found me telling me that we had very little time to arrange a driver so I rushed upstairs and met the club people, who arranged a driver to pick us up so we could take our guitars & merch back to the hotel, and from there go to the When We Were Young Party. Our driver was so fucking nice, he offered to even take us somewhere after WWWY, but we wouldn't accept, that is too nice!!!

So we go to WWWY, danced and chatted. I met some awesome Swedish people. One of the guys who I ended up talking to for a while gave me his earring, which is a bone! Like a Finger bone or something, it was awesome and I will never forget that! I hope to party with him and those two crazies when I make it to Sweden one day, moving forward. This is when I got to chat with a guy who I came up and told he and his girlfriend look great earlier in the night outside of the Werk II, Johannes & Emma. We started chatting and did so for hours! Drinking too, of course and talking to whoever else came by, but it was cool, we bonded and now we chat online yay :-)

The sun begins to rise, I get another drink and we make it back to the tram line to ride for 30 minutes back to our hotel. At this point we had played an amazing gig, hung out with great people, danced to so many good songs by Scary Lady Sarah, drank a fuck load of beer and I was feeling so great, hyper as a "god damn".

Between being loud, doing a pull up on the tram, tossing the ass of a strawberry Jesse gave me into the window (subsequently ricocheting into Vyle's eye, which pissed him off and made me sad that I did that, we worked it out pretty fast though) anyway, the tram conductor stands up and threatens to kick my loud, drunk ass off the tram. I then sit down and behave, but how Motley was that?!?! This is when I realize I didn't use the toilet before I left and totally need to pee! We eventually get off the tram and I run into the bushes and pee one of the best pisses in my life. I'm sure you wanted to know that, but what kind of story would this be without those details, a cleaner one perhaps?

I run and catch up with the group, say bye bye to my new friends Johannes and Emma and went to our hotel with the rest of the guys. Since it was after 7am and the complimentary hotel breakfast starts @ 6am, we were in time for free breakfast. The Vegetarian selection wasn't bountiful, but they had tasty sautéed mushrooms, potatoes and fruit. Mmmm it was good, after some food we all went to our rooms and passed the fuck out.

Sunday May 10th:

Stich and I awakened around 4 or 4:30 pm, but hey we didn't sleep till about 8 am, so yeah. Very soon after we awaken our good fiends Steffie, Micha, Rossen and Agnieszka all met up in our hotel room. We got ready, ate bread, drank beer and left. Went to the mainstation, got some subs from Subway and headed to the Agra. We meet up with Dave and Jenn Bats again, then Sean & Roxy and everyone else among the thousands of people. We got there just in time to see Fliehende Stürme. I go with Sean, we get beers and watch Fliehende Stürme, who sounded totally amazing but wasn't much to look at. Hanging out with Sean was so nice, got to say I love that guy, we'd hang out all the time if we lived near each other. After their show was over we went back outside, drank some Met (mead) talked to our friends until it was time for "CD 1334". They did a great fucking job, Rikk Agnew played his guitar identically to the original 1981 Only Theatre Of Pain, what an amazing gig! I met Motherdance Patty, who was responsible for arranging our 2007 tour, so that was cool. After CD 1334 I wandered more, drank, had fun until London After Midnight was ready to go on.

I got into this band in high school, around 1997 or 1998, so to see them live was kind of nostalgic of my high school mind frame. They put on a good show, I was up close and enjoyed it, knowing that in one month TB would be playing with them in Salt Lake City for the 2008 Dark Arts Festival (which was fucking bad ass btw), after LAM, Fields of the Nephilim took the stage. They really blasted the place, I didn't expect it to be that rocking but it seriously was. I didn't watch the whole Fields gig, I wandered into a different part of the Agra where Vyle, Steffie, Micha and more fiends were hanging out at. That is also around the same time I went to the bathroom and on the way, saw my friend Sisen from Japan. He is a rad dj, who saw us @ WGT 2006 but missed us this time sadly, but at least we got to say hi again in person. I go back to Vyle and our fiends, Vyle at this point is insanely drunk, it was fun. Stich wanders and finds us shortly after we go out side. James is nowhere to be found, I call him to find out he went to the WWWY party, but since it was so late and realizing we leave @ 8 am, which ws a few hours away, our group thought it might be good to take a tram before they close. This time on the tram Vyle is the loud drunk mofo, but there were no strawberries to complicate matters. So we take care of Vyle, make it to our hotel, and go to Stich and I's hotel room. Then we decide to go to Vyle's room, which is where we have a very deep, meaningful, personal conversation and feel even more connected than ever. We have a big band hug, and keep talking until the hotel breakfast is available, then we go down and get food. I should mention that Jesse James and Adriana are not there since they have a different hotel to go to since they planned to stay in Europe a week longer than everyone else. So at this point it it about 7 am, we leave at 8 am and there is no sign of our drummer James.

(oh yeah it is Monday by now!)

Monday May 11th

We eat a bit, drink coffee and James shows up in time to eat breakfast and have a cup of coffee before our driver arrives to take us back to the Berlin TXL airport for our flight home. For the ride back to the airport we also shared the same van as Tacktical Sect and Ashbury Heights. At some point some one says something political, which triggers an in depth political debate between James (More of a Liberal/Independent) and the guy from Tacktical Sect (More of a Conservative Republican), from debating the "Trickle down economics" of the past to religion, James (who is one of the smartest, most politically aware people I've ever met) pretty much nails a few points in a polite manner. Needless to say we made friends with both bands and said goodbye once we arrived at the airport. We were all so thirsty, water was needed in order to function so we got water very soon, then checked in, got our boarding passes and waited for our flight. I was so damn tired, I slept before take off, and slept until they brought by my "special" vegetarian meal (they typically get out the vegan/vegetarian meals out first, since we had to request the meals in advance) ate the food, listened to music and got some rest. When the drink time came around I chose another Whiskey & Coke. We took it easy on the Germany to New York City flight. We arrived in NYC, but had to wait because the plumbing on the plane was fucked up, so after a delay we board the plane and I plan to drink. During the flight Stich felt sick, so it was a one man party for me. I had 4 free mini bottles of whiskey that I mixed with cola, which inspired some lyrics. Then I ended up paying for the 5th bottle. I felt so great, but felt bad that Stich was feeling sick so I spent my time thinking about how great of a time I just had in Germany and also felt so excited to return to my home in Salt Lake City Utah.

Once the plane landed we all got out as fast as we could, but I did say soemthing pretty funny. It happens to me quite a bit honestly, anyway so as were departing the plane, passing by some passengers continuing on to another destination and I end up saying, "We will get off as soon as we can because we respect you mofos!" Later I realized saying that I respect them, and calling the mofo's, isn't exactly respectful, but to me I meant the best. We then get out of the plane and pick up our baggage and went to our homes with our significant others.

All in all WGT treated us great, provided excellent transportation, everything we needed for our performance, the crowd was amazing, our friends were great to see or meet, it couldn't have gone any better.